Overview:
Safety and Violence Education (SAVE) is specifically designed to provide proactive violence prevention strategies for clinical, case management, and other human service and law enforcement staff who serve young adults and older adults with mental illness in community settings. The SAVE program promotes safe practice by teaching staff to identify warning signs of impending violence, and to utilize proven methods for approaching high-risk individuals in community settings. Although incidents of serious violence against service providers are relatively rare, fallout from these events can have devastating consequences while further stigmatizing persons with mental illness. Consequences of workplace violence can include staff absenteeism, recruitment and retention problems, poor morale and declining quality of care. Simply witnessing a violent event can be traumatic, and it can contribute to feelings of helplessness and unpredictability in the workplace.
Training Content:
Content will cover: Need for safety training; impact of violent incidents on providers, clients and others; risk factors for violence among mentally disordered individuals and general populations (interpersonal, institutional and physical plant/environmental); prediction of violence; tips on evaluating dangerousness; case-based scenarios with increased risk; team approach to safe practice; risk reduction (short staffing, high-risk situations); a novel violence-risk survey, situational awareness models; linear aggression sequence; avoiding common pitfalls; teamwork, communication and practical support in crisis situations; safe transport, field work and home visit safety; incident review and lessons learned (post-incident debriefing and mentorship/supervision).
Learning Objectives:
•Recognize and appreciate the need for safety and violence prevention training;
•Identify general risk factors for violence;
•Assess individual risk factors for violence;
•Utilize individual and team skills to prevent and to de-escalate crises;
•Implement safety precautions as a team when providing client services in and outside the clinic setting;
•Conduct effective incident debriefings when violent incidents occur.
Course Instructor: Robert L. Weisman, D.O., Professor of Psychiatry, Clinical Chief, Community Division, University of Rochester Medical Center